Abstract: A rotatable feed wheel for use in a sheet shingling apparatus having fixed, relatively round protrusions spaced about its outer surface which contact and shingle sheets of paper. The rotatable feed wheel is unitarily constructed and its surface which contacts the sheets of paper is made of a material which produces a lower coefficient of friction between the wheel protrusions and the outermost sheet being shingled than the coefficient of friction between the outermost sheet of paper and its adjacent sheet in the stack.

Abstract: A system for automatically proofreading a document for word use validation in a text processing system is provided by coupling a specialized dictionary of sets of homophones and confusable words to sets of di-gram and N-gram conditions whereby proper usage of the words can be statistically determined. A text document is reviewed word-by-word against a dictionary of homophones and confusable words. When a match occurs, the related list of syntactic rules is examined relative to the context of the subject homophone or confusable word. If the syntax in the immediate context of the homophone or confusable word conflicts with the prestored syntax rules, the homophone or confusable word is highlighted on the system display. The system then displays the definition of the highlighted word along with possible intended alternative forms and their respective definitions.

Abstract: A method and control apparatus for operating an interactive text processing system wherein the system emulates a terminal for a data processing system which is capable of accessing information from the data processing system data base, copying the information into the text processing system memory, and automatically converting the information from the data processing system format into the text processing system format. Similarly, the text processing system is capable of converting information from its own data base from a text processing system format to a data processing system format and transmitting the information to the data processing system.

Abstract: The combination of dictionary driven hyphenation, specialized algorithmic hyphenation and intelligent blank insertion provides improved right margin justification capability in a text processing system. When hyphenation is required for right margin justification, the system compares the word to be hyphenated to a prestored dictionary of words containing hyphenation points. When the word to be hyphenated matches one of the dictionary words the hyphenation points are retrieved and the word is split at the right margin. If the word to be hyphenated does not match one of the dictionary words, then a specialized list of prestored hyphenated suffixes and prestored statistical character digrams are compared to the word to determine the appropriate hyphenation points. Once the word has been split, the system searches the line for sets of predetermined words which may be separated from other words in the sentence by adding space to the line with a minimum of aesthetic distortion.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transforming data transmitted from a remote information processing system which operates in a first internal code format to the internal code format of a second receiving information processing system. The method includes a control program for operating the receiving information processing system in an interactive mode with the operator. The control program displays prompts and command options to the operator which enables the operator to construct a transform table of conversion characters for the communication session. The conversion table is also useable by the control program routines to reverse the data transmission operation by converting the internal code format of the second information processing system to the internal code format of the first information processing system for data transmission in the opposite direction.

Abstract: A method for compactly storing and reproducing script and graphic data from a computer input device. The computer input device sends a time sequence stream of x,y coordinates indicating graphic character locations on the input device. The first coordinate point of the graphic data is stored. Subsequent points are buffered until a reversal in the coordinate magnitude direction is detected with regard to either coordinate axis. This point is taken as a sample point and terminates a buffered segment and starts a new buffered segment. Each segment of the graphic character is approximated by a circular arc segment which is retained by storing the horizontal displacement to the mid-point of the arc segment along with the x and y displacements to the ending point of the segment. The retained information is sufficient to reproduce the input script or graphic for display, print, or manipulation. This is accomplished by mathematically regenerating the arc segments in the same sequence as they were originally created.

Abstract: A high-density printed circuit card electrical contact pad pattern that preserves card surface area while maintaining loose mechanical tolerance requirements and a high probability of contact. The invention exploits the elliptical shape of the area of high probability of contact between the contact pins of a mating connector and the card surface. The elliptical area is derived by an accumulation of mechanical tolerances associated with the card and with the pins of the mating connector. A plurality of rows of contacts are disposed along an edge of the card with each contact enclosing one elliptical area of high probability of contact. Each row is offset with respect, to, and slightly interleaved with adjacent rows.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for instruction parity error recovery in a programmable data processor wherein the instruction parity error is logged for future reference, the instruction causing the error is reloaded to memory and the program is restarted at the point of error. This method for "soft" recovery from an instruction parity error forces a No-Operation instruction onto the processor's instruction bus in place of the faulty instruction when a parity error is detected during instruction fetch, stores the address of the instruction having the parity error, and forces the next instruction to the processor from a parity error recovery routine. The parity error recovery routine logs the error, restores the instruction from local disk storage or from a remote host system in communication with the programmable data processor and forces the processor to resume fetching instructions at the address where the error occurred.

Abstract: An improved method for storing and rapidly accessing a dictionary file of encoded data for use in verifying the correct spelling of input words. Dictionary words are numerically encoded and hashed into magnitude and unique angle pairs. The hashed pairs are sorted and the magnitudes are mapped into a pointer bit vector containing a binary representation for each possible magnitude value and a binary representation for each actual magnitude value. The pointer bit vector is coordinated with the angle values which are stored as is. The spelling of input words is checked by hashing the input word and using the magnitude as an access to the pointer bit vector which yields pointers to all angles having the same magnitude as the input word. These angles are compared to the angle calculated for the input word and an indicator produced to show the result of the comparison and thereby whether the input word is correctly spelled.

Abstract: An improved system for identifying and compacting text data to be transmitted over communications lines and thereby reducing the data volume and transmission time. Transmitting and receiving text processing systems are provided identical library memories containing words commonly used in correspondence. Each word in a document to be communicated is compared to the transmitting system's word library and, if found in the library, only the library address is transmitted. If the word is not found in the library, then it is added to the transmitting system's library, sent, and added to the receiving system's library. The receiving system reconstructs the document by using the received addresses to access the appropriate words from its library and place them in the document. The system combines this word match encoding with character match encoding and facsimile run length encoding for communicating words not found in the system library.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for vectorizing text words for compact storage and spelling verification in a mini-processor system without the use of complex mathematics functions. A binary storage table contains a plurality of addressable binary numbers. Each character in an input word is converted into a numerical weighting value. The numerical weighting values for the characters in a word are used to index into a magnitude weighting table. The selected magnitude weights are summed to produce a vector magnitude representation for the input word. The numerical weighting values are also used to cumulatively access the binary storage table. The values output from the binary storage table are modulo-2 added and accumulated to produce a vector angle representation for the input word. The calculated magnitude and angle values are used to compactly store a dictionary memory of correctly spelled words.

Abstract: A method and system for compacting text data to be transmitted over communications lines and thereby reduce the data volume and transmission time. Transmitting and receiving text processing systems are provided identical library memories containing text strings such as words commonly used in correspondence. Each word in a document to be communicated is compared to the transmitting system's word library and, if found in the library, only the library address is transmitted. If the word is not found in the library, then it is added to the transmitting system's library, sent, and added to the receiving system's library. The receiving system reconstructs the document by using the received addresses to access the appropriate words from its library and place them in the document. The system combines this word match encoding with character match encoding and facsimile run length encoding for communicating words not found in the system library.

Abstract: A starloop communication network for intraestablishment communication in a multiterminal processing system includes a digital switch as its central terminal. In the basic mode, the switch is configured so that the input from each terminal is switched back to the next terminal forming a loop network. A central processor in the network need only service the output of the first terminal on the loop and the input from the last terminal. The digital switch includes a port connected to monitor activity on the loop. In the event of a failure, the monitor can determine the failing terminal in the loop by use of a binary search around the loop. The failing terminal will be detected by the monitor and automatically isolated from the loop by the digital switch. The communication network may also be configured to include a plurality of terminal devices of equal performance and intelligence, i.e. a plurality of central processors.

Abstract: A scanning beam display system is used as a projection display and as a reflective flying-spot scanner using a plurality of photoreceptors to sense depth. Used as a display, the projection of a document-size image from overhead onto a work surface such as a printed form provides a naturally oriented, non-invasive display. Beam modulation and contextual subtraction permit the flying-spot function in ambient light. Used as a combination display and scanner, inherent registration of the display and data input functions permit interaction with an operator by displaying on and sensing form any document or work object. A plurality of non-overlapping sensors operate with the flying-spot function to receive images alike in perspective but differing in shadow placement, from which relative distances and object boundaries are easily derived.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved system for verifying the spelling and providing hyphenation points for text words from a plurality of interspersed languages. The control system includes control codes which are inserted in the text to define the language of the text following the control code. The system accepts the control codes and responds by comparing the text following the control code against a storage dictionary of correctly spelled words and hyphenation points for the language associated with the control code. The system provides as an output an indicator of whether the word is correctly spelled or where the proper hyphenation points for the word appears. The systemn further includes control codes which when detected will cause blocks of data which should not be compared to the storage dictionary to be skipped.

Abstract: A system for proofreading a text document and automatically detecting and replacing text words in the document which exceed a predetermined understandability level for the documents intended audience. Text words and synonyms are stored in a dictionary which includes an understandability code for each word based statistically on textbook grade levels. The operator enters a grade level code into the system for the intended document audience. The system scans the document for words which exceed the desired grade level, highlights those words on the system display and prompts the operator with synonyms which can be used to replace the highlighted word. The operator may select a desired replacement synonym by placing the system cursor underneath the word and depressing and enter key from the system keyboard.

Abstract: With a directed beam imaging system, a method is presented employing a low-pass filter in the positional signal path, a time-discrete positional signal, and precompensation of this time-discrete signal for phase and amplitude errors of the overall positional control circuitry. As a consequence of this method, the uncompensatable vector nonlinearities of the prior art vector stroke are obviated, the useable system bandwidth or stroke per unit time is extended beyond the prior art to the maximum driveable frequency, and in many text and graphics applications fewer strokes are needed to produce the desired image.

Abstract: An improved method is disclosed for operating an interactive text processing system to integrate and process DP (data processing) type structured field data and WP (word or text processing) type text or string field data in the same record. The method involves displaying to the text processing system operator a menu of data type codes selectable through a keyboard for defining the types of data fields in a record. In response to operator selected field types, structured fields of fixed length and address pointers of fixed length for the string fields are established for the records. When the data is keyed in, the structured fields are concatenated with the address pointers for the string fields, and the text data, including format control codes, is stored at a system selected address on an auxiliary storage device such as a disk file.